The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection considers that the public announcement made by the City of Novi Sad, which calls on the Commissioner to "act as is becoming of his position and truly protect the interests of all citizens of Serbia" and imputes that the Commissioner had caused harm to Novi Sad by providing false information, beggars belief and constitutes a thinly-veiled attempt at misleading the public.

The announcement issued by the City of Novi Sad "with its entire city administration and headed by Mayor Milos Vucevic", reads as follows:

"Namely, the attempt to create a false public perception of Novi Sad as a city that conceals information and does not act transparently has officially unravelled following the passing of a Resolution which confirms that the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection has terminated the proceeding pursuant to a complaint filed by the Anti-Corruption Council of the Government of the Republic of Serbia which requested the disclosure of certain information. In its submission of 9 May 2016, the Anti-Corruption Council dropped the complaint because the City of Novi Sad had provided the requested information in the meantime. Thus, the Resolution itself confirms that the public had been given false information.

"Both the Anti-Corruption Council and Mr. Rodoljub Sabic had been notified of the fact that the City of Novi Sad had complied in due time with all duties it had in relation to the Anti-Corruption Council, and yet Commissioner Sabic, although well aware of this fact, decided, for reasons only he knows, to publicly spread baseless accusations against Novi Sad."

However, this is a blatant attempt to obfuscate the facts. While it is clear that the Commissioner passed a Resolution to terminate the proceeding referred to in these allegations, this proceeding had not been the subject of the Commissioner's announcement and his call for the Ministry of Public Administration and Local Self-Government to undertake appropriate action against several local self-governments, including the City of Novi Sad.

In the original proceeding, the Anti-Corruption Council had requested information on commercial premises lease agreements. It was another case in which the City of Novi Sad had not acted in accordance with the law by failing to "timely" provide information, which was why the Council filed a complaint with the Commissioner. It was only after this that the city complied with the request, after which the Commissioner – logically – terminated the proceeding. This, however, does not mean no infringement had taken place which the competent Ministry should investigate.

However, far more pertinent is the fact that the Commissioner's announcement did not even refer to this violation of the law, but to an entirely different one, in which the Anti-Corruption Council had requested entirely different information, namely the number of employees whose salaries are funded by the City of Novi Sad and the structure of the city's budget revenue and expenses. As the city had ignored this request as well, the Council filed a complaint with the Commissioner after the expiry of the statutory period. The proceeding pursuant to this complaint is pending.

Without speculating whether the announcement made by the City of Novi Sad was motivated by a deliberate intent to mislead the public and attempt to discredit the institution of the Commissioner or the whole situation arose as a result of confusion and obliviousness as to the actual content of the city administration's archives, either way I find it shocking that the city's authorities believe I have reason to apologise for anything. If anything, they should apologise to me, or even better, to the citizens of Novi Sad, on whose behalf they exercise their powers, which are seriously undermined by cheap moves such as this one.